Teams : Argentina,Iceland,Croatia,Nigeria
Argentina
Iceland
Croatia
If atleast one from Messi,di Maria or Aguero clicks,next round won’t be much of a problem for Argentina.Iceland has the advantage of having nothing to lose and that shows in their game.Nigeria plays the rough and robust African football and can cause upsets .Croatia is expected based on the sheer strength of their midfield & good frontline.
This is the 17th World Cup of the two time champions.The case of their frontline was that of too many cooks spoiling the broth.Most of their forwards play in the same position for their clubs,hence someone had to lose out and it was Icardi,the top scorer in Serie A.Not a very smart decision,when you look at the figures.The names in their forward line are Messi,Higuain,Aguero & Dybala,all stars for their clubs but not enough effective in their national color,except for Messi.Their game is heavily drawn around and dependent on their captain Lionel Messi quite like in Barcelona.But he doesn’t get the support that he gets in barcelona.They lose when Messi misses a match,they lost to Bolivia in the qualifiers,to Nigeria & Spain, in warm up friendlies.An effective team formation or strategy change from over reliance on Messi is yet to be seen.This may change as the world cup starts.Argentina reached the last World Cup final and two Copa America finals,thanks to Messi,but he faltered at the final step and no one else stepped up.Their midfield has the ever reliant but injury prone Angel di Maria along with Bligia,Banega and 'The Little Chief' Mascarenho.The big names in defence are Rojo and Otamendi.Their primary goalkeeper Sergio Romero's injury leaves them with keepers less experienced in the national color.They are coached by fellow Argentinian Jorge Sampaoli who was Chile's coach when Argentina had lost to them in 2015 Copa America final.
Iceland is the surprise entry in this world cup and the first timers don’t fear anyone.Any advancement would be a bonus and celebration for them.They had beat England and drew with Portugal in the Euro cup and defeated Croatia in the qualifiers.The fun fact is that their players' names are similar and difficult to pronounce.Glyfi Siggurdsson who plays for everton & Albert Gudmundsson playing in Erstedivise are their prominent players.Add to that Bjorn Bergman Sigurdarson and Ragnar Sigurdsson both of whom play for Rostov in Russian Premier league.Their coach Heimir Hallgrimsson is associated with the team as assistant coach from 2011 to 2013 and from then onwards as coach.
Croatia is another team who is coming for their fifth world cup.Their best was the third place back in 1998.Their strength is their mid-field with their captain and Real madrid player Luka Modric along with Barcelona's Rakitic and Inter Milan's Brozovic.Liverpool’s Lovren is their star in defence while Mandzukic,Perisic,Kalinic and Rebic are the critical forwards.Rebic's brace had helped Eintracht Frankfurt win Dfb Pokal after three decades.Croatian football coach Zlatko Dalic manages them.
Nigeria
The african team is coming for their sixth World Cup and causing upsets is nothing new to the three time pre-quarter finalists.They had defeated spain in 1998.Argentina has become a regular feature in Nigeria’s world cup campaigns and this is the 5th time out of total 6 that they are in the same group.They are yet to beat Argentina in a world cup but had defeated them in the warm up friendly after trailing by 2 goals.A player to be watched out for is Ahmed Musa who had scored 2 goals against Argentina in the last world cup and is now playing in the Russian league.Other players to be noted are fomer Chelsea player John Obi Mikel,current Chelsea player Victor Moses and Arsenal’s Alex Iwobi.German manager Gernot Rohr is in charge of the team.
Fifa Ranks @ June 07,2018.
Argentina : 5
Croatia : 20
Iceland : 22
Nigeria : 48